The Helmholtz Institute Würzburg (HIRI) receives two grants totaling more than one million euros for Leopard Biosciences. This funding will be used to commercialize the LEOPARD diagnostic technology. The innovative diagnostic platform, which can detect multiple RNA and DNA biomarkers in a simple point-of-care test, is expected to help improve medical care decisions in the future. The funding comes from the Helmholtz Enterprise spin-off program and the Helmholtz Validation Fund.
The Helmholtz Institute Würzburg (HIRI) and Julius Maximilians University (JMU) had achieved a breakthrough in medical diagnostics with their research into the natural gene scissors CRISPR, a part of the bacterial immune system. Joint research on CRISPR ribonucleic acids (RNAs) led to the development of a new technology called LEOPARD. The results have already been published in the prestigious journal Science.
Using CRISPR to improve diagnosis and therapy
What is special about the LEOPARD technology is that it has the potential to detect several disease-related biomarkers in a single test. This should lead to a faster and better diagnosis as well as therapy of patients. The ease of use of tests based on LEOPARD technology could also provide significant added value, for example in the case of tuberculosis or neglected tropical diseases in regions without access to clinical laboratory infrastructure.
Leopard Biosciences' HIRI spin-off team, led by HIRI Department Head Prof. Chase Beisel, now plans to use the funding to further test the technology and advance its commercialization. Leopard Biosciences plans to spin out in the coming months and become a leading player in point-of-care molecular diagnostics.
At the BioM BioAngels Pitch Day on May 24, 2023, the founding team around Prof. Chase Beisel and Dr. Mikkel Noerholm presented their technology to interested investors.